1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electric vehicle provided with a high-voltage power source and a low-voltage battery.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, an electric vehicle such as an EV (Electric Vehicle), a HEV (Hybrid Electric Vehicle) and an FCV (Fuel Cell Vehicle) is provided with a high-voltage battery for driving the vehicle and an assistant low-voltage battery (of 12V or so), as disclosed in JP2001-202980A, for example.
In a gasoline engine vehicle, an alternator supplies electric power to a low-voltage battery. On the other hand, in an electric vehicle, it is common that electric power is supplied from a high-voltage battery (high-voltage power source) to a low-voltage battery through a DC/DC converter. In such a power supply system, even if electric power supply from the low-voltage battery runs down or is shutdown, electric power supply from the high-voltage battery through the DC/DC converter is maintained, so that an electric control unit (ECU) and a system including a high-voltage system can be kept operating. Accordingly, the vehicle can be kept driving even though output from the low-voltage battery runs down or is shutdown during driving.
To the contrary, in a case in which the vehicle is in a still state with an ignition switch thereof “ON”, in order to stop the electric power supply from the high-voltage power source by setting to be opened a contactor for a high-voltage system, which is controlled with the electric power supply from the low-voltage battery, it is required to stop both the electric power supplies from the high-voltage battery and the low-voltage battery.
In a conventional electric vehicle, in light of failing to switch off the ignition switch when disassembling the body or during a maintenance operation, it is required to shut down the electric power supplies both from the low-voltage battery and the high-voltage battery, along with an operation to confirm that both the electric power supplies are shutdown, which makes the operations more tedious.
Therefore, to solve the above difficulties, it would be desirable to provide an electric vehicle which facilitates operations of ensuring shutdown of electric power supplies both from a low-voltage power source and high-voltage battery and confirming the shutdown.